Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T13:13:16.439Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Need for Sound Judgment in Analyzing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Enforcement Actions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

I agree completely with most of the issues raised in Mark Atlas's article “Rush to Judgment” in this issue (Atlas 2001). First, environmental justice is an important research topic that is too often addressed by writers with preconceived notions about the presence or absence of discrimination in environmental protection. Second, I agree with Mark's critique of the National Law Journal (NLJ) study, the first to investigate possible racial or class inequities in civil environmental penalties. Third, I agree that researchers need to use appropriate data, controls, and statistical techniques and that there is no evidence that civil penalties for violating environmental regulations are systematically lower in poor and/or minority communities. Finally, I agree that in “Rush to Judgment” Atlas makes a unique and valuable contribution to the environmental justice literature—which is why I recommended that the manuscript be published in Law & Society Review. Nevertheless, I believe that “Rush to Judgment” has substantial weaknesses that detract from its stature as a piece of social science research. Not surprisingly, I disagree with Mark's assessment of the validity of the conclusions from my previous work in this area—conclusions that “Rush to Judgment” reinforces in every respect. More important, however, I believe that Mark's article displays fundamental flaws regarding how we use evidence to draw generalizable conclusions about the world around us, and how one makes use of extant research to carve out a niche for one's own work.

Type
Forum on Environmental Equity Research
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 Law and Society Association.

References

Atkins, Burton (1992) “Data Collection in Comparative Judicial Research: A Note on the Effects of Case Publication upon Theory Building and Hypothesis Testing,” 45 Western Political Quart. 783–92.Google Scholar
Atlas, Mark (2001) “Rush to Judgment: An Empirical Analysis of Environmental Equity in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Enforcement Actions,” 35 Law & Society Rev. 633–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William, & Feldman, Stanley (1985) Multiple Regression in Practice. Sage Univ. Paper series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, series no. 07–050. Beverly Hills & London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, William, Ringquist, Evan, Fording, Richard, & Hanson, Russell (1998) “Measuring Citizen and Government Ideology in the American States: 1960–93,” 42 American J. of Political Science 327–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brace, Paul, & Hall, Melinda Gann (1993) “Integrated Models of Judicial Dissent,” 55 J. of Politics 914–35.Google Scholar
Carp, Robert, & Rowland, C. K. (1983) Policymaking and Politics in the Federal District Courts. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Cushman, John (1992) “Justice Department Is Criticized Over Environmental Cases,” New York Times, 30 Oct. A-16.Google Scholar
Fisher, David Hacket (1970) Historian's Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Gujarati, Damodar (1995) Basic Econometrics, 3d Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Hardy, Melissa (1993) Regression with Dummy Variables. Sage Univ. Paper series on Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences, series no. 07–093. Beverly Hills & London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamieniecki, Sheldon (1995) “Political Parties and Environmental Policy,” in Lester, J., ed., Environmental Politics and Policy: Theories and Evidence, 2d Ed. Durham, NC: Duke Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kovacic, William (1991) “The Reagan Judiciary and Environmental Policy: The Impact of Appointments to the Federal Courts of Appeals,” 18 Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Rev. 669713.Google Scholar
Kubasek, Nancy, & Silverman, Gary (2000) Environmental Law. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
McSpadden, Lettie (1997) “Environmental Policy in the Courts,” in Vig, N. & Kraft, M., eds., Environmental Policy in the 1990s, 3d Ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Olson, Susan (1992) “Studying Federal District Courts Through Published Cases: A Research Note,” 15 Justice System J. 782800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinello, Daniel (1999) “Linking Party to Judicial Ideology in American Courts: A Meta-Analysis,” 20 Justice System J. 219–54.Google Scholar
Ringquist, Evan J. (1998) “A Question of Justice: Equity in Environmental Litigation, 1974–91,” J. of Politics 1148–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringquist, Evan J., & Emmert, Craig (1999) “Judicial Policy Making in Published and Unpublished Decisions: The Case of Environmental Civil Litigation,” 52 Political Research Quart. 737.Google Scholar
Rowland, C. K., & Carp, Robert (1996) Politics and Judgment in Federal District Courts. Lawrence, KS: Univ. of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey, & Spaeth, Harold (1993) The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Siegelman, Peter, & Donohue, John (1990) “Studying the Iceberg from Its Tip: A Comparison of Published and Unpublished Employment Discrimination Cases,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 1133–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, Donald (1988) “Nonpublication in the United States District Courts: Official Criteria Versus Inferences from Appellate Review,” 50 J. of Politics 206–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, Donald, Sheehan, Reginald, & Haire, Susan (2000) Continuity and Change on the United States Courts of Appeals. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar